Somersworth offense never found its groove

SOMERSWORTH — The offensive prowess that the Somersworth High School football team showed in its Division V semifinal win eluded the Hilltoppers on Saturday in the championship game.

The top-seeded Hilltoppers mustered just 129 yards of total offense, including a mere 39 on the ground, in a 9-0 loss to No. 3 Monadnock. It was the only time the Hilltoppers had been shut out all season.

“We tried different things up front to try to go up against what they were giving us,” said Somersworth senior tight end Darren Glore. “But we just couldn’t find anything. Hats off to them, they did a real good job at stopping us. We had a couple of big plays here and there, but we couldn’t keep anything together.”

The Hilltoppers were looking for their 15th title overall and first since winning the Division IV championship in 1997.

Somersworth sputtered on offense right from the start. Its first two drives ended in turnovers, one of which led directly to Monadnock’s only touchdown of the day. The Hilltoppers went three-and-out on three occasions, punted six times and thrice turned the ball over on downs.

The Hilltoppers’ offense was almost completely out of sync in the first half. After the two turnovers, Somersworth twice went three and out. The Hilltoppers did not record a first down until late in the first half when a deflected pass by quarterback Drew Francoeur found Isaiah Gaddy for 13 yards. Later on the drive, Francoeur thrice went to the air for long passes. On each throw he had an open receiver, but could not connect.

“We were getting open,” Somersworth coach Dan Hodsdon said. “They were there. We knew they were there, we just couldn’t execute. That was the name of the game, execution. And we weren’t doing it.”

Somersworth just could not get the big play it needed to break the game open. It was a sharp contrast to the Hilltoppers’ semifinal win over No. 4 Stevens, when it scored 21 unanswered points in the second half after trailing 7-6 at halftime. That second-half spark wasn’t there for the Hilltoppers against Monadnock.

Francoeur credited Monadnock’s defense for closing up the holes all afternoon.

“We just had a hard time today,” Francoeur said. “They put a lot of pressure on the outside, and that was tough.”

On Somersworth’s biggest offensive play of the afternoon, Francoeur hit Kurtis Michaud down the right sideline late in the second quarter. Michaud caught the ball in stride ahead of Monadnock’s Jared Stephenson, then deftly kept his feet inbounds for a 36-yard gain. Unfortunately for the Hilltoppers, Francoeur was sacked two plays later, and a desperation pass on fourth-and-20 went incomplete.

“They were moving around and we were just making too many mistakes,” Michaud said. “We were there physically, but mentally we just couldn’t come through. They play all their guys out front, and we couldn’t get past them today.”

Trailing 9-0 at halftime, Somersworth went three-and-out again on its first drive of the second half, then finally got going on its next series. After Glore blocked a punt that gave Somersworth the ball at the Huskies’ 28-yard line, Francoeur connected with Glore on a 17-yard pass that put the Hilltoppers’ at the Monadnock 18.

“All the way up until the last play in the fourth quarter, we knew we had a shot,” Michaud said.

From there, the drive sputtered, as Francoeur threw a pair of incompletions and was sacked.